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Black Radly
Black Radly is a group of musicians, which first formed in Plist late in LY 911, when the members were all about 16 years old. Members include Anja Frontrun, Jae Furthingtame, Marc Protestant, and Rain W. The name of the band is taken from a Terran book called "Luck in the Shadows," in which the name referred to a type of bow. They all thought it sounded like a cool name for a band, when they read the book, which had been lent to them by Marc's cousin, Drew Protestant, a spirit-talker. (Drew also gets some songs from spirits, which he passes on to the group to perform, though the members of the band mostly collaborate on writing original songs, themselves.) Over the years, many music critics have written about the band's remarkable aptitude for adapting their sound in ways few, if any, other bands on The Land have. While it is common for bands that started around the same time as Black Radly (such as The Cephalopods) to be considered progressive, by Landian standards (most older bands being similar in style to various musical genres of Earth from centuries earlier), most of the new wave of bands have more of a "1960s" sound. Black Radly, on the other hand, is often described as "all over the map... in a good way." The band got its official start in 912, playing in the Boar & Bear, an inn/tavern run by Marc's aunt, Marie Taverner, and her husband, George. They soon began playing other gigs around town, and in 913, they released their first bubble album, "Atomic Genie Unbottled." (According to the liner notes, prior to picking the name "Black Radly," the band had briefly considered calling themselves "Atomic Genie," and planned on calling their first album "Unbottled.") The album's sound has been described by at least one spirit as similar to the "rock" music of late 20th century Earth, circa CE 1980s. In 914, they released their second album, "Swing to the Rock." This time, the sound was a blend of rock and another Terran music genre, "swing," which originated in the 1930s. Around this time, the band's popularity began to spread worldwide, owing partly to increased play on bubble-radio and bubble-screens (including the popular program 200 Centhours); but also thanks in part to Anja's fame for having developed a method of using piston pumps to compress carbon dioxide and other gases, which could then be used to serve beer from kegs. The band's growing popularity led to them being one of various bands to play at the 916 World Fair in Kurok. Later that year, they released their third album, "Royal/Rabble." There is some speculation that the title may be a reference to the First Village branch of InterGang, which was originally called the "Rabble-rousers," and later renamed the "Royal Rebels," before becoming one of the founding branches of InterGang. Members of Black Radly have never confirmed nor denied that such speculation may have some merit, though the official story mentions only the fact that the sound of the album is a mix of rock and symphonic music, with backing from the Royal Orchestra. Their fourth album, "Neolithic," was released in 918, and was considered by many to be a return to their original form. However, some spirits have said that while the first album was a fairly general style of rock (with a hint of the alternative music of the 1990s), Neolithic was more specifically "punk" rock, or rather neo-punk. (Punk rock had originated in the 1970s, but the sound of Neolithic was more similar to the punk revival of the 1990s-2000s.) Roles in Black Radly *Anja Frontrun: dulcimer-player, microlliope-player *Jae Furthingtame: singer, majitar-player *Marc Protestant: drummer *Rain W: singer, Frinn horn-player See also *musical instruments *Terran culture: Music Category:Groups